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Wide-grip Pulldown

WIDE-GRIP PULLDOWN — FRONT AND BACK

Taken from Dave Draper's book, Brother Iron, Sister Steel

To the front: Positioned directly below the overhead pulley, legs held steady by the kneepad, arms fully extended, pull the bar to just below your chin as you look upward. Your back should be arched, your chest straining toward the bar with your elbows back, not forward, all positioned to fully recruit the entire lat complex — width and length.

Allow a sufficient lean and tug to accomplish your well-formed reps, but no excessive thrusts. Don’t cheat — no momentum — you lose. Feel, locate, pump, burn and grow.

If chins are your challenge these days and dern near impossible, by all means do the appropriate pulldowns to enable you to aspire.

To the back: Use a medium grip and situate yourself slightly forward of the overhead pulley. From the fully extended starting position, pull the bar deliberately down directing the resistance to the upper back muscles, rear delt, biceps and lat. This is best achieved by concentrated isolation of this region by pretending you are onstage, before the judges and instructed to hit a back pose. Contract up and down smoothly, tightly, rhythmically.

Here’s a long time combo-strategy I use to bomb everything in sight: Tightly contract the upper back muscles as you pull the bar to the base of the skull for six reps. Use the negative return for full muscle recruitment — lats, scapula, etc. Position yourself so there will be no need to dangerously thrust your head forward to allow the passage of the bar. Continue the final six reps to the chin as described previously with sufficient tug to overload the back. You’re flying.

• Here's a couple of hints to consider when performed the pulldown, whether wide, medium or close grip. The lats function to pull the shoulder girdle down and back. When performing the pulldown, make an effort to squeeze the shoulder blades together and strongly arch the back. This will ensure activation of most of the latissimus' function, as well as involving the erectors (to maintain a tight arch.) Arching the back should be done in conjunction with leaning back, if you choose to lean back.

I find that in my own case, pulldowns to behind the neck aggravate my sensitive shoulders. I seldom do them anymore. Pulldowns to the front are much safer for me and facilitate the retraction of the scapulae and arching of the back mentioned above. (If I had known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself....) Wicked Willie

• From a recent column by Dave, here's an expansion on his thoughts about widegrip pulldowns:

Wide grip pulldowns

We’re seeking the captivating taper that particularly defines a sleek, well-proportioned body: the V-shape, the hour-glass figure, wide at the shoulders -- narrow at the waist. Widegrip pulldowns performed with a few mid-set movement variations do the job totally.

Note: The only exercise that develops the latisimus dorsi better than the lat pulldown is the widegrip chin, but not everyone can perform the movement with focus, form, control and reasonably high repetitions -- 10 to 12 plus. The widegrip pulldown practiced regularly will help the avid trainee in achieving the strength and ability to perform the chin and include it in his or her exercise repertoire.

Rewards are everywhere, kids. Don’t lose your childhood curiosity.

This exercise description stuff can get boring, so I’ll get to the point. I include three specific movements within the one exercise: grasping the bar (oh, that you might have the advantage of grasping a thickbar handle) at a reasonable width -- 12 to 18 inches to left and right of shoulder width, and positioning myself with my back to the cable apparatus, I pull the bar behind my neck to the base of the skull. Be thoughtful always. Hunching the back or pitching the head forward disrupts the muscle recruitment. I seek a tight contraction throughout the upper back, across the rear delts and biceps, and effectively return the bar to its fully extended starting position. Six reps load and fatigue the back but don’t exhaust it totally.

Without pause I assume a position facing the apparatus directly under the pulley -- mid-set nimbleness -- and pull the bar straight down to the forehead. The initial tug is executed with particular attention on the lat’s uppermost insertions -- the region where the lats begin, their widest expanse. Three or four reps are enough to reach maximum burn and assure, in time, maximum width. The last three or four reps are virtual backward-leaning body thrusts to finish the deed. You hang on for dear life. At the peak of this motion, the bar reaches for the mid-pec area, as the back is arched in mighty muscle contraction. These are robust, full extension to full contraction movements that lay claim to the entire back.

Releasing the bar is a victory. You drift away as your lats pick up minor air currents; a wind can be catastrophic.